odd network traffic issue

[fdisk2003]

yo guys was hoping someone here really experienced with networking could help me out here.

lately this cisco 2610 at work has been flipping out and when i ping it, it's reporting ms delays in the hundreds or even thousands. eg:

ping -t 192.168.0.128

Reply from 192.168.0.128: bytes=32 time=523ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.128: bytes=32 time=412ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.128 bytes=32 time=1523ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.128: bytes=32 time=1752ms TTL=255
Reply from 192.168.0.128: bytes=32 time=268ms TTL=255

i made this up but its how it looked when i pinged it a day ago, latency wise.

this causes lots of latency when my users go to browse the internet. i've found out if i restart the router after writing memory it clears up, but then it comes back after several days.

as near as i can figure, this may be caused by:

1. too many bozos using internet radio/chat/etc applications - i plan on making sure those ports are closed
2. some spam/ad software that may have been installed on several pc's without my knowledge, the software may be "reporting home" or could be pulling down many many ads. unfortunately my users arent bright enough to notice this is going on and i have to rely on them reporting it currently.
3. possible router misconfiguration? im not the router guy, we don't really have one - one of my co workers just took some cisco courses and is trying to become that person. i wouldnt rule this out but hes very safe at making changes.

how would i go about trying to solve this problem? can anyone recommend a good easy to use network analyzer so i can find out what is causing all this traffic on my network between the pc's and internet router?

thanks

 

[spidey07]

sounds like processor. on the router type show proc cpu and post the output.

If you're pinging the inside interface of the router (on the same LAN as you) and you're getting anything higher than like 2 ms then something is wrong.

Got any worm activity on your net? Post "show interface" as well and I can tell if you got some worms.

 

[fdisk2003]

ok thanks. one final piece of the puzzle is when i log in to write memory before restarting the router everything is very slow. its almost as if you called a 300 baud bbs back in the day, how the text appears very slowly..almost 1 second between every character/word printing.

ill have to wait until the router pings flip out again to post those stats you asked for, might be a few days. it seems to be intermittent.

thanks again, will be back when i have the logs

 

[Pheran]

It definitely sounds like the router CPU is getting hammered. Follow spidey's advice, and if you have access to a sniffer, look for network scans, you might have worm infections on your network.